"The Charbor Chronicles": Trip Down South Day 7: Driving Through Mississippi, Never Ending Alabama, Arriving in Tennessee, Departing For Newark

Friday, September 24, 2021

Trip Down South Day 7: Driving Through Mississippi, Never Ending Alabama, Arriving in Tennessee, Departing For Newark

The final day of the trip was almost purely functional. It consisted of driving. Some of the driving was done right after the New Orleans Saints game, and we had made it to Mississippi by maybe around 9:45 or 10pm, give or take. By maybe around 11:30pm, we got a notification from our GPS that the highway that we were traveling on was closed because of an automobile accident. We took the recommended trip around the accident, but it added something like forty-five minutes to the trip.

Wonderful.

There was one cool thing that happened in Mississippi. I wanted to make sure to get gas as often as possible, not knowing when the next time that we could get gas would be. Just as an aside, I need not have worried, because they have unmanned gas stations that are open 24/7, where you put your credit card in and then pump the gas. But I did not know that. So maybe around 10:13 or 10:30 (maybe a little later), I stopped at a gas station and began to pump gas. I was going to go inside and get a snack, but a woman who worked there looked at me and asked if I wanted free pizza. She said that they were going to throw it out, so it would be better to give it away then throw it away. I said sure, and my son and I had a full dinner of pizza and something called Tornadoes, which I had never heard of before, but which were actually pretty good. A very nice gesture.

So we drove. On the way down, it felt like Mississippi felt like it took forever to get through. This time, it was Alabama. I don't even know when we crossed over, precisely. I saw a sign at some point for the Alabama state line in five miles, perhaps a quarter to one in the morning. But there was no obvious point where we crossed, no "Welcome to" sign or anything. I just remember reaching a fork, and seeing that it was an Alabama highway, according to the GPS, which also usually tells you that you crossed into a new state. Not on this night, however.

We drove through small towns. I had expected to drive on the interstate, and while on some levels, it was cool to go through some of the local towns, it also added to the time. Also, I figured there might be a better chance that we might see police, so I tried to keep the speeds more or less down.

We drove. And we drove. And we drove. There were some towns of fair size, but mostly, it was farms. There was fog, and it was a lot chillier than I had expected it to be. In New Orleans, it was hot, both day and night, and I figured Mississippi and Alabama would be the same way. But it was not. It was cool, even chilly at some points, dipping down to the sixties.

There was a national forest that we went through at one point, which was pretty cool. Eventually, we got to northern Alabama, and saw some signs for Huntsville, where the Crimson Tide play. Then finally, maybe around five in the morning or just before, we reached Tennessee. I drove until we got to within thirty or so miles of Nashville, and then pulled into a truck stop to get just a little bit of shut eye. Maybe one hour and change later, we got up and finished the final leg of the trip to the airport.

No issues with the flight, and we got back to Newark when expected.

One more trip for my son and I was not in the books.